Polish primers (textbooks for learning to read) of the 16th and 17th centuries.

From the 16th to the 18th, and in parish and village schools until the 19th century, reading was taught by the syllabication method known since antiquity, also known as the alphabetic method. Many of all textbooks were catechism teachings – hence their unambiguous confessional character. The two oldest known Polish reading textbooks were intended for followers of the Augsburg Confession. However, it is very likely that the first Polish primers, containing catechism teachings following Catholic doctrine, began to be printed in the 1520s. The article discusses all currently known editions of Polish script reading textbooks published in the 16th and 17th centuries.